We Can Block the Wall!

A Call to Create a Real National Emergency for Trump

Trump has announced that he will declare a state of emergency to fund his border wall. The proposed wall and additional security measures will be devastating for migrants and border communities. During the last shutdown, federal employees and federal contractors were forced to work without pay or to scrape by on furlough, while people relying on government assistance were forced to seek out limited community alternatives and refugees were trapped in bureaucratic limbo. Make no mistake—a grassroots movement ended the shutdown. Trump gave in only when air traffic controllers and flight attendants stopped clocking in and airlines across the east coast began to close down.

We refuse to choose between Trump’s openly racist wall and the Democrats’ implicitly racist “smart border.” The differences between Trump’s border wall and a soft-power smart wall are minor variations on the same deadly theme. We will block the border wall. We choose another way: freedom of movement, solidarity, and mutual aid.

We can combat Trump’s policies that greet asylum seeking families with tear gas at the southern border, that leave Haitian people to die in boats coming to the United States and 58,000 Haitians in legal limbo, and that criminalize whole communities. We will uplift the inspiring work by black and brown migrant support organizers like the UndocuBlack Network, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, NorCal Resist, and more, who defend black and brown migrant communities most targeted by ICE harassment, deportation and the police. Together, we can defend refugees, migrants, and government workers. We can re-imagine community safety, and support federal workers and communities under attack. We can demonstrate through solidarity and mutual aid that we can build a world without borders or state violence.

On February 15, we call for a movement from below. It is time to act courageously—together. We need a bold, positive vision of the future in contrast to Trump’s white supremacist fantasy. We need to create a world in which people can move freely, where families can find refuge from danger, and communities are brave enough to welcome newcomers and create a shared sense of belonging. Where refugees now encounter hostile border guards, where black immigrants face the dual threats of deportation and incarceration, they should find communities coming together to welcome them with food and shelter. Where federal workers and contractors find themselves unable to pay their bills, they should find communities acting in solidarity to meet their immediate needs.

We call for a “Block the Wall” mobilization on February 19 and 20 against the border wall and against the state of emergency. We can march, take over public space, and organize sick-outs in the nation’s capital. We can block every ICE detention center, field office, and ICE contractor around the country with the occupation of the public space around the facilities. Each of these offices are maintained by working class people in support staff, couriers, cleaning crews, tech services, and social workers. We invite all of these workers to call in sick and join the occupations on the sidewalks and streets.

We call for the organization of mutual aid to support the federal workers and subcontractors who remain uncompensated for 34 days of unpaid labor, and to support those who rely on government assistance. We call for cooperation to pool and distribute resources immediately to ease the daily struggles of those most affected. We commit to taking care of one another as the state gambles with the lives of millions.

We call for direct support for migrants and border struggles. There are multiple initiatives already demonstrating hospitality to migrants and physically defying the border that separates the United States from Mexico, from autonomous kitchens in Tijuana to indigenous-led anti-border camps in Texas. We will build the capacity to undermine the border, welcome refugees, and demonstrate that free movement can be beautiful, safe, and beneficial for all—so long as the police and la migra stay out of the way.

Share your marches, actions, and mutual aid initiatives with the hashtag #BlockTheWall, or tweet updates to @BlockTheWall on twitter or BlockTheWall123 on Instagram

A Few Examples of Actions You Could Organize

Black Resistance: No Cages No Borders No Walls, hosted by Black Lives Matter DC and Stop Police Terror Project DC, on Monday, February 18, 12 pm, in a the Park at City Center, Washington, DC. In spite of the abuse, criminalization, deportations, and surveillance… our joy, our anger, our survival is resistance. Join us on anti-presidents day as we gather to protest Trump and the criminalization of all black people.

Free Lunch PDX, an autonomous collection of anarchists whose program exists at the intersection of the Black Panther Survival Programs and Food Not Bombs, is holding a community feed and zine distro event on Tuesday 2/19 in solidarity with the #BlocktheWall call to action. From 11 AM until the food runs out, we intend to take space adjacent to Portland Community College’s Cascade campus in the historically black neighborhood of Albina in so-called Portland, OR. We’ll be offering up delicious vegan food and distributing a range of zines covering everything from work theft to “Designed To Kill.” We endorse the call to action and look to be inspired by the autonomous actions popping off across Turtle Island.

Block the Wall Solidarity March, Wednesday February 20, 4 pm, Seattle Central College—Against Trump’s wall, in support of migrants and their comrades facing repression at the hands of Mexican and US authorities, and in support of emergent mutual aid that fights to bring shelter, medicine, food, and freedom of movement to all.

Books

No Wall They Can Build: A Guide to Borders and Migration across North America— Drawing on a decade of solidarity work in the desert between Mexico and Arizona, this book uncovers the goals and costs of US border policy, and what it will take to change it. Order it here or click the image above to access the PDF.

Stickers

Click the image above to access the PDF in English and Spanish. You can order these stickers in bulk here.

Appendix II: Tornillo, Texas

The following photos are from a demonstration today in Tornillo, Texas opposing one of the prisons in which children are being held. After holding an encampment outside the Tornillo youth detention camp since December 23, a coalition has called for people of conscience to join in a national weekend of action February 14-18 to disrupt migrant detention, deportation, and murder.

Appendix III: Report from the Second Migrant Caravan in Mexico

This morning, Mexico City government officials used police to evict the migrants that were on the street outside of the shelter at Estadio Palillo. There is a group of approximately 1500 people that arrived at
the shelter between Sunday night and Monday. Those who arrived on Sunday were given a green bracelet; those who arrived on Monday were given a purple one. When they arrived, they were told that they could stay 10 days in the shelter, but the policy was changed without warning and now they are allowed only three days. Yesterday, the migrants were denied food and those with green bracelets were kicked out. They stayed outside on the streets nearby, because they had come with their family members and friends who had purple bracelets, and they have been waiting to leave together tomorrow.

At 9 o’clock in the morning, government officials arrived and told the migrants that they had to get on their way and they could not wait for the rest of their companerxs; they threatened to send them to immigration control and to the riot police, even though those same people have visas. Several people have been beaten, and those who were taking photos and video had their bracelets taken away even if they had purple ones. Those who were inside and wanted to come out to help their compas were not allowed to leave and were locked inside.

Footage of Mexico City police attacking participants in the second migrant caravan. More footage here.

All the way from the southern border, officials have been pressuring people “not to wait for their families,” saying those with visas have to continue on and not wait for their compas that don’t have their visas yet.

They have been threatening them with police every place they enter, saying “continue on,” even though they are giving them one-year visas to stay in the country. They don’t want to see large groups and they don’t want people to wait. Right now, the same thing is happening in Mexico City, even though the local government boasts about having an Intercultural Law and an “inclusion” policy that is very “advanced” in regards to human rights.

Last night, the state police in Chiapas accompanied a group of 20 people as they walked between Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula. They told them that they were “protecting” them, and that they should rest and stop to go the bathroom and drink water. That’s when the National Institute of Migration (INM) arrived with 10 police holding vans and started to detain them. Many people ran away onto the road at night and today many families are separated and lost, and many people have been detained and beaten up.

While Trump declares a national emergency in order to build his wall, this government is doing the same, and probably worse than those before, because they are not only doing the work of the US but they are also disguising their actions behind a “progressive” discourse while they repress migrants.

About CrimethInc.

CrimethInc. is a rebel alliance—a decentralized network pledged to anonymous collective action—a breakout from the prisons of our age. We strive to reinvent our lives and our world according to the principles of self-determination and mutual aid.

We believe that you should be free to dispose of your limitless potential on your own terms: that no government, market, or ideology should be able to dictate what your life can be. If you agree, let’s do something about it.